Albert Heijn to ban plastic fruit, vegetable bags from supermarket

Albert Heijn wants to stop using plastic bags in its fruit and vegetable departments. The Dutch supermarket chain will start experimenting with alternatives in 10 stores this summer, a spokesperson for Albert Heijn said to RTL Nieuws.

"Reducing plastic has had our attention for some time", the spokesperson said. "The so-called loop bags at the cash register have become thinner and smaller, so we save about 10 percent of plastic, and containers with soft fruit now have plastic foil as a lid instead of a hard plastic lid."

When the experiment will start, and in which stores, is not yet known. Albert Heijn customers use around 170 million plastic bags fro fruit and vegetables each year.